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Sports Minister recalls how NFF fleeced him in 2002, vows to tackle corruption

Newly sworn-in Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalong, has vowed to eradicate corruption among sports administrators. The Minister also revealed he was once a victim of fraud perpetrated at the Glass House.

The lawyer explained that he was among the FG’s delegation to the 2002 Africaa Nations Cup. They were promised $7,000, but the NFF only paid them $400.

Dalong also warned that no one should visit him with any form of bribe.

He said: “Corruption has indeed destroyed everything we do in this country and that is why we think that the best way to approach it is to come out and wage war against it. This corruption was not only limited to sports alone but every social system.”

“Once we are able to minimise corruption in the industry, we will go far. The best way to do it is to provide transparent leadership. The body language of the leader should be very clear. The major predicament is when a minister declares that he wants to fight corruption but yet brown envelops are smuggled into his resident at the midnight, there is no way he can wage war against corruption.

“It is not possible because those bringing brown envelops have vested interest in the system. It is either that they have strangulated the system and want to be protected or they are planning to beat the system. Every whistle blower must be very careful because you cannot say that you don’t like the system yet you are practicing corruption.

“That was what was on ground but I think, we will try to make the difference. We will insist that anything meant for a particular purpose should be utilised for that purpose. Anybody who has done us proud should be rewarded. Anybody who deserves entitlement should be given the entitlement. Let me say that corruption will be tackled headlong.

“I am a victim of all those frauds they do in the sports industry. I went to Mali in the 2002 Africa Nations Cup on a federal government delegation. I want told in Abuja here that I was entitled to an extacode of $7,000 but I was given $400.

“I was given $400 and I have to metamorphose from a refugee in Mali to organising international launch from my friends to safe me to be able to survive and return to this country. Meanwhile there were children of people in government playing with Dollars. “Why we lost that match in Mali was because of the tradition of a player making some concession of $2,000 from his allowance of $5,000 to the team before he will be featured. Those who did not comply were denied appearance for that match. I don’t know if Jesus or Mohammed has touched them to change.”